1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus capable of performing continuous shooting and more particularly to a high-speed continuous shooting technique for an imaging apparatus including an imaging element with a large number of pixels.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a significant increase in the number of pixels in digital cameras has been made, including small size digital cameras, which have come to the market to include an imaging element with ten to twelve million pixels. Accordingly, even when printing on a sheet of a size of about A3 size, a printing result that is sufficient for viewing can be obtained.
On the other hand, the increase in the number of pixels in the digital camera causes the time required to read out image signals from an imaging element to be longer. This problem becomes prominent particularly in a so-called continuous shooting mode in which continuous shooting is performed on a subject in motion to obtain the best shot. That is, since using an imaging element with a large number of pixels it takes time to read out image signals from the imaging element, it becomes difficult to perform high-speed continuous shooting, increasing the possibility of missing the best shot.
To solve the above-described problem, a digital still camera described in JP-A-2003-219267 is proposed. The digital still camera described in JP-A-2003-219267 thins horizontal lines when reading out image signals from an imaging element, achieving fast readout. This enables high-speed continuous shooting in a digital still camera using an imaging element with a large number of pixels.
However, since the digital still camera described in JP-A-2003-219267 thins horizontal lines when reading out image signals from the imaging element, there is a problem that the image quality of a shot image is degraded.
The present invention is directed to solve the above-described problems and an object of the present invention is therefore to provide an imaging apparatus can suppress degradation in the image quality of a shot image in high-speed continuous shooting.